Sony to Acquire Altair Semiconductor for $212 Million

Sony Corporation has agreed to acquire Altair Semiconductor for US$212 million.

Altair, which is based in Israel, supplies modem chip technology and related software for LTE.

Sony said it aims to not only expand Altair's existing business, but also to move forward with research on and development of new sensing technologies. By combining Sony's sensing technologies - such as GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) and image sensors - with Altair's high-performance, low power consumption and cost-competitive modem chip technology, and by further evolving both, Sony will strive to develop a new breed of cellular-connected, sensing component devices.

http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/News/Press/201601/16-008E/

LTE IoT Chipset Targets 10 years of Battery Life

Wednesday, October 28, 2015  #IoT, Altair, LTE, Silicon  1 comment

Ericsson, in partnership with AT&T and Altair Semiconductor, plan to demonstrate ultralow power consumption for IoT devices with a target battery operational life of ten years.

The demonstration of LTE Power Saving Mode on a commercial LTE Internet of Things (IoT) chipset is showcased at this week's GSMA Mobile 360 Series - North America event in Atlanta, Georgia.

The IoT device Altair's FourGee-1160 Cat 1 chipset featuring ultra-low power consumption. Power Saving Mode is an Ericsson Evolved Packet Core feature based on 3GPP (Release 12) for both GSM and LTE networks. The feature is able to dramatically extend IoT device battery life up to ten years or more for common use cases and traffic profiles.

Cameron Coursey, Vice President, Product Development, AT&T's IoT Organization, says: "IoT connectivity is essential to helping businesses stay tethered to their assets around the world. Whether a trucking company hauls expensive cargo across the country or a restaurant transports fresh food overseas, a long battery life on their connected devices can help them provide continuous service.  Businesses can save money and become more efficient with battery replacements every few years rather than very few months.

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LTE IoT Chipset Targets 10 years of Battery Life

Ericsson, in partnership with AT&T and Altair Semiconductor, plan to demonstrate ultralow power consumption for IoT devices with a target battery operational life of ten years.

The demonstration of LTE Power Saving Mode on a commercial LTE Internet of Things (IoT) chipset is showcased at this week's GSMA Mobile 360 Series - North America event in Atlanta, Georgia.

The IoT device Altair's FourGee-1160 Cat 1 chipset featuring ultra-low power consumption. Power Saving Mode is an Ericsson Evolved Packet Core feature based on 3GPP (Release 12) for both GSM and LTE networks. The feature is able to dramatically extend IoT device battery life up to ten years or more for common use cases and traffic profiles.

Cameron Coursey, Vice President, Product Development, AT&T's IoT Organization, says: "IoT connectivity is essential to helping businesses stay tethered to their assets around the world. Whether a trucking company hauls expensive cargo across the country or a restaurant transports fresh food overseas, a long battery life on their connected devices can help them provide continuous service.  Businesses can save money and become more efficient with battery replacements every few years rather than very few months.

"Power Saving Mode running on a Cat 1 device enables new use cases and services so far impractical for LTE based IoT networks. We are very pleased to cooperate with ecosystem partners such as Ericsson and AT&T to demonstrate how these use cases are made possible today, based on existing and commercial device and infrastructure technology," stated Eran Eshed, Co-Founder and VP of Marketing and Business Development, Altair.

http://www.ericsson.com/news/1962068

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Altair Offers Optimized LTE Chipset for IoT

Altair Semiconductor has begun sampling its new FourGee-1160 and FourGee-1150 Category-1 and Category-0 LTE chipsets targeting the Internet of Things (IoT) market.

CAT-1 and CAT-0 are lower speed and power versions of the LTE standard which dramatically extend the addressable market for carriers and chip makers alike. The chipsets are optimized for long-term battery operation in small devices, such as wearables, sensors, etc.

"While chipsets supporting these lower categories are essential for numerous applications, including wearable devices, smart home and smart metering, there has been an industry development gap that we had anticipated two years ago," said Eran Eshed, Co-Founder and Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at Altair. "We've worked hard to address this gap by being first to market with true CAT-1 and 0 chipsets featuring a power/size/cost combination that is a massive game-changer."

Key features:

• Extremely low power consumption enabling between weeks and years of operation, based on the use case scenario
• Highly integrated chipset with embedded power management and direct battery connection
• Embedded MCU subsystem with virtualized, customizable application layer and a robust security framework
• Rich set of host, peripheral and sensor interfaces typical to IoT and M2M applications
• Supports VoLTE, OTDOA positioning and seamless integration with industry standard GPS and A-GNSS chipsets
• SDR-based, software upgradeable to support 3GPP Release 12 and 13 features
• Miniature footprint, available in both BGA package and as bumped dies

http://www.altair-semi.com

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